Double Rainbow

Spritz-11

I charge at her headfirst, annoyed. I've had it with this stupid, cocky Obsidian. I ram her wing and she stops me with a claw, sending me back into the air but I land hard on my feet. I hear a crack but I ignore it.

Avery and Torch charge together, Torch blasting Nethera's long tail with fire and Avery sending the hot blob into the wall. New, stronger Obsidian takes its place and the queen sends Torch flying into me and Avery dodges, but Nethera breathes a spray of green fire onto her, burning her wings. Avery skids to the ground.

I run straight at Nethera, my trident alight in golden energy. Sliding under her, I slam right into her stomach. She stumbles back a bit and falls right on top of me. Freezing the floor, I slide out before she falls, but her massive bulk traps my tail and a sharp pain and the noise of my tailbone being crushed are signs that I won't be getting out until she designates I can.

Trying to slide away, I sit there, stuck. Nethera laughs and picks me up by my broken tail, sending waves of pain up my spine. She throws me into the wall, and Avery tries to fly up to break my fall, but she is unsuccessful. Her burned wings flap helplessly as I thud onto the steely ground. I lay there, bruised to the point where I can no longer stand, and watch helplessly as Nethera blasts Avery again. Avery jumps out of the way, and the wall singes and melts.

Avery aims a blast at Nethera, who is pushed way back into her throne.

"But of course." Dark Rainbow murmurs for the first time in the battle.

She whispers something into Torch's ear which I just make out pieces of.

"Dragons... chest... hole... weakness."

Squinting up, I see a tiny chink in Nethera's chest. How are we supposed to get up there?

Torch runs up to Nethera and blasts her, aiming for the chest, but it hits her in the right eye instead. Nethera screams in pain as she blinks to put out the fire in her eye. The eye is burned away, and she roars at all of us, "THAT'S IT. I AM DONE PLAYING WITH YOU FOOLS. I AM GOING TO HANG YOU IN THE MOST PAINFUL PLACE POSSIBLE AND TORTURE YOU UNTIL EVERY BIT OF FEAR AND PAIN IS TAKEN FROM YOUR BODY!"

A purple aura which condenses into the form of a black Canira forms above her head, much like the aura Natrina summoned when we fought her. A dark aura forces us back, a powerful, infinite force pulsing across the room, making an awful grinding sound that makes me want to claw out my ears.

"Can't fight this, hmm? Unlike Natrina, I can assure you I will not stop out of mercy."

Avery stands up for a few seconds, covering her face with her wings, but in a burst of pink energy that falls away from her, she crumples to the ground, her horn smoking.

Torch still stands, his fire streaming backwards as he struggles to stand. He breathes one powerful fireball at Nethera's heart but the aura forces it down and it only singes her claws on her right side, which she doesn't even bother to reform.

"As I told you!" She yells over the din, "You all failed in the end. Useless, stupid pawns of fate. Destiny, little ones, can never be avoided. It's a path that we all must follow. Some of us were born for glory and the others simply... fade."

Just then, Dark Rainbow stands up, her ears blowing back from the force of the shadowy energy. "Once, I thought my destiny was to defeat the Imperial Three. Yet I still stand beside them in the final battle as friends. Once, I thought that my destiny was to spend the rest of my days as the ones of this summer, sleeping under the willow tree, but you burned it down. I learned that once, my destiny was to save a pack of wolves from your Obsidians."

"Please, that was just a little revenge kill. It wasn't even a big deal." Nethera complains, unmoved by Dark Rainbow's speech.

Wolves? I remember seeing something, once. Two amber eyes of a black wolf, standing behind her one day at the tree. What on Dreamland...